A couple of our mature trees had rotten cores, so we felled them as a preemptive measure (Souness style, we got our retaliation in first). One was a horse chestnut that oozed black gunk out of a gaping hole. That is hopefully going to sprout from the base again and there are shoots there ready to go. I have also sown some conkers to grow some replacements if the sprouting doesn’t work.
The second tree is maybe a Lawson’s cypress or maybe a western red cedar, not managed to pin that one down yet.The leaves and reddish cones look like Lawson’s cypress but the really pungent wood suggest maybe western red ceder (the leaves would match that possibly). Either way, I’ll make something out of it rather than burn it.
It had holes in its base that we could get a fist into (on three sides). It was a fine tree and it’s a shame it had to go. So far our plans are to replace it with a damson and something else (a seedling horse chestnut or a magnolia perhaps).
As the stump won’t regrow, I turned it into a noughts and crosses board. This has been on my wishlist since we moved here.
K for the win!
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